Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York City, was arrested yesterday. The indictment against him is one of the dumbest things I have ever read, almost as silly as the nonsensical allegations leveled against Puff Daddy. Both cases exemplify how overzealous prosecutors are willing to twist mundane events into sensationalized accusations. This is a waste of taxpayer money, it damages reputations, and all over incidents that are pretty harmless.
Let’s start with Adams. The charges claim that he received about $100,000 worth of free perks, consisting of an upgrade on a Turkish Airlines flight and a free upgrade on a hotel suite in Istanbul. It’s crazy that this is the foundation of a criminal indictment. Adams paid for his flight and got an upgrade to First Class. That seems pretty standard, not a major bribe. His hotel room in Istanbul was upgraded to a suite. The indictment makes the case that because the rack rate on the suite is $7,000 per night that this is somehow untoward. They even include photos of the room in the charges. As if somehow that seals the deal. This room is a total piece of crap. There is no chance that anyone would ever pay $7,000 per night for it. Also, if you ran a hotel, and the Mayor of New York City booked a room, wouldn’t you upgrade him to the best room available? Of course you would – that’s hospitality.
The entire case hinges on the idea that these “perks” were given to Adams in exchange for speeding up an inspection of the new Turkish consulate in New York so that it could be opened sooner. But one of the Mayor’s primary jobs is to ensure that city services—like inspections—are performed efficiently, especially for important international partners. The idea that Adams is corrupt because he wanted to streamline a process that often takes months in a notoriously bureaucratic city is absurd. Instead of being praised for trying to ensure New York’s reputation as a global hub, Adams is being dragged through the mud on the flimsiest of allegations.
The same overblown narrative can be seen in the accusations against Puff Daddy. He’s facing sex trafficking charges because he invited male prostitutes to his weekend-long parties with ex-girlfriends. Yes, Puff Daddy, a global entertainment icon, has thrown lavish parties for years—big deal. The idea that bringing in male escorts somehow equates to sex trafficking is not just outrageous but damaging to real trafficking cases. I have written before about how this term is overused because it sounds so nefarious. Trafficking involves coercion, manipulation, and horrific exploitation. Conflating it with a celebrity throwing a party with hired entertainment dilutes the seriousness of the term. I do think it’s funny that Puff Daddy just wanted to sit in the corner in his cuck chair. I also think it’s funny that the FBI counted 784 d*ldos at his house and thousands of bottles of l*be. Could you imagine joining the FBI and being assigned the job of being the d*ldo counter?
Let’s be real: if these were ordinary people hosting parties or getting a hotel upgrade, no one would bat an eye. But because Adams is the Mayor of New York and Puff Daddy is a high-profile figure, these normal occurrences are suddenly painted as corruption or sex crimes. This is nothing but a cynical attempt to make headlines, while wasting taxpayer dollars on weak cases that don’t hold up under scrutiny.
In both cases, the authorities are stretching the definition of wrongdoing to absurd levels. The charges against Adams and Puff Daddy don’t just lack merit—they insult our intelligence. The overreach here is obvious, and it’s being done with an agenda. Prosecuting Adams over a flight upgrade and a hotel suite is a waste of taxpayer money, as is charging Puff Daddy with sex trafficking for hosting parties. The real crime here isn’t what these men are accused of—it’s the wasteful, misguided effort to paint irrelevant behavior as criminal for political or sensational gain.